


pluck a panda lily / save the species

by Terapsina



Series: Tumblr Prompt Responses [5]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F, Gen, Korra POV, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-30 10:04:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8528884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terapsina/pseuds/Terapsina
Summary: Giving a panda lily to someone is meant to show how much you love them. It sounded like a good idea at the time.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm putting the prompts at the bottom of the fic in case you want to see them.

Okay, so Korra knows that Asami didn’t really _need_ her to go get the panda lily as some cosmic proof that what they have is love.

But the universe seemed to have been _hinting_. What with the both of them simultaneously being needed in the Fire Nation; Korra receiving a call to deal with a dark spirit, the same week Asami was getting ready to travel there to put in the final touches on a business deal about airships between Future Industries and some local factories.

They had ended up borrowing Oogi from Tenzin and sharing a rather pleasant if uneventful ride (“I keep expecting someone to show up and attack us from behind.” Korra muttered three hours into the trip as they switched the reins) to Ember Island, which was near where Korra was needed. Even on Oogi’s back their destination couldn’t be reached before it started to turn dark though, so instead of spending the night with scorpion bees, two headed rat vipers and other such critters, Asami talked her into getting a hotel room and turning the evening into an impromptu date night.

Which was brilliant. The air had been warm, and they’d gotten to enjoy the last light of the sunset. It painted the sky golden and red, both colors Korra associated with Asami. There had been a moment where her favorite engineer stood in front of Korra, the sinking sun directly behind her and almost forming a halo.

(”What?” Asami asked a bit self consciously as Korra grinned at her a wide and stupidly charmed smile.)

And then later they shared a pleasant dinner at the local restaurant that was made even better by some surprisingly good singers.

And that is where Korra ran into what she _now_ admits was trouble.

One of the songs they sang was Makapu Maiden. an old one from Earth Nation about a girl who received a panda lily from her true love and the great spirit of the volcano he had faced in that quest; Korra guessed this was a rather _exaggerated_ version of the tale.

Unfortunately - on reflection, that is, - this reminded her of one of Katara’s many stories about Aang.

When Korra was small she used to _love_ Katara’s stories about her former life, swallowing them up like a polar bear dog would swallow fish. This one was about the time he ( _“Me!”_ Korra would often insist) and her brother went to get the rare volcanic flower for Katara but ended up saving a village instead. Now that she thought about it, that’s actually how a great many of those stories went, starting out light and goofy and culminating in a lot of shenanigans. She also vaguely recalled something about clouds.

The point is, Asami _loved_ the song, she’d kept humming it even as they fell asleep in each others arms later.

And then in the morning they parted ways, Asami dropping Korra off on the little volcanic island, where she’d investigate the rumors about the dark spirit that had been making trouble for the vacationing tourists, while she took the flying bison for the rest of her trip to Capital City. 

And well, if Korra was so near a volcano _anyways_ …

—

So here Korra is now. the plucked panda lily in one hand and the moody, but not _dark_ spirit of the island glaring at her like she’d killed someone.

Apparently this particular spirit was unhappy about “-all these new _tourists_ trouncing around my _home_ and littering behind themselves, not looking where they were stepping and _cutting plants_ all over my island. And now _you_ come along, Avatar, and you’re no better than the rest of them. That flower you’re holding is endangered, did you know? Did you _care_?!”

Korra finds herself wilting under the spirit’s stormy gaze and words. The panda lily suddenly burning in her palm.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

“You humans _never do_. And yet it doesn’t…” Korra listens to the spirit ranting for a minute more trying to come up with the right course of action here. Obviously this isn’t a corrupted spirit whose energy Korra could bend back into balance. And if the panda lily really is an endangered species then she was definitely in the wrong by plucking it just because she wanted to gift it to Asami.

But Korra also couldn’t allow the situation to escalate. Up to now the spirit had been playing mean tricks on the people visiting the island and trying to scare them away, but sooner or later someone would get hurt and she couldn’t allow that either.

But banishing a spirit for protecting their home would also be wrong.

‘ _Protecting_ …’ she repeats in her mind, an idea occurring. Korra snaps her eyes back to the still angrily rambling being, “How endangered is this plant species, exactly?”

The spirit falls silent under Korra’s suddenly calm and centered gaze.

“Very.” they mutter cautiously.

“And is this the _only_ rare or endangered species that grows on this island?”

“No.” the spirit responds somewhat more surely “There’s also three others, though panda lilies are the only ones going on the brink of extinction.”

The idea takes form. But Korra is going to need help.

—

“-so then I got the thought that the island should be made into a protected species territory of some kind? So people wouldn’t be allowed to show up there.” Korra says and then falls quiet, fidgeting and trying not to blush from the fond, amused look on Asami’s face.

“So you wanted to bring me a flower and ended up declaring an entire island off limits instead?”

“I mean, I still got you the flower.” Korra corrects and then widening her eyes quickly backtracks “Well I’d already killed it. There wasn’t really any point in leaving it behind, but I know it’s not all that romantic anymore now that I know it’s endangered. And I haven’t declared it off limits _yet_. I actually need some help with that.”

Asami’s face changes, bringing on that look she gets when she’s coming up with one of her brilliant new prototypes or considering the best strategies for a business plan. Korra kind of loves that look.

“This could actually be what we need to widen the cooperation between United Nations and Fire Nation in the scientific field. I’ve told you about the boulders that have been placed between nations on sharing information about even medical discoveries, right?”

Korra nods. Asami has been very critical of that, often speaking about how such bans halt the progress of discovery.

“Well… maybe you shouldn’t declare it off limits to _all_ humans. I know a few biologists in the field who have been telling me they want to study plant and animal species in conditions that don’t get affected by human influence. And if we make it a-”

“You’re thinking about some kind of cooperation project?”

“Exactly!” Asami nods.

“Fire Lord Izumi might go for that. Tenzin will too. I’m not sure about Raiko though.”

“Leave Raiko to me. I’ll figure out how to make it about popular opinion and he’ll sign off.”

—

They continue discussing strategies well into the night, going over all the details until the idea is starting to form into an actually feasible plan. Korra doesn’t even notice the time passing.

And then as she blinks up and finally _notices_ that the sun has long since gone down and realizes how invigorated she feels even now hours later, Korra finds herself blurting out something she didn’t plan to. Well, something she did plan to, just not right _now_.

“That’s when I knew that I loved you.”

Asami stops parsing through the growing mountain of notes and looks up with a confused look on her face. Korra doesn’t blame her, by itself the sentence probably makes no sense.

“What?”

“I mean… you know, back before Kuvira’s attack on the city? That one night when Varrick went off to do something I probably still don’t want to know about, so you needed someone else to bounce off ideas from? And it was just like this? That’s when… I mean… Asami, I love you.”

Asami’s smile grows as easy on her face as it ever has, which is something Korra admires about her, because for Asami the last few years haven’t been any less painful than for Korra, but somehow her smiles are as wide as ever. And they’re so _warm_ , Korra could bath in their beams forever.

“I love you too.” Asami whispers before dropping the papers on the table and leaning in for a kiss.

Korra’s heart stutters and races.

**Author's Note:**

> isagrimorie asked: Are you still looking for prompts? Katara and Asami talking.  
> anonymous asked: Prompt: Korra braves a volcano to get Asami the coveted Panda-lily.  
> anonymous asked: korrasami prompt! "That's when I knew that I loved you."  
> -  
> Please let me know if you liked this. Or if you didn't. I'm open to that too.


End file.
